ICANN recently dismissed an attempt by Google to stop Groovle.com from operating using its domain name. The dispute was filed by Google in November, 2009, on the grounds that Groovle sounded too “confusingly similar” to its trademark name, Google.

National Arbitration Forum (NAF), which mediated the dispute ruled in favor of Groovle.com, stating that the name was sufficiently different to cause any “confusion”. It further stated that the domain name stay with Groovle.

This is the only the 2nd time in the history of Google that it has lost a domain name dispute. The previous case was a dispute with froogles.com, which also ended with a similar ruling.

What does this ruling have in store for the future of trademark violations? Though Google had managed to stop numerous other entities from registering or using domains names that remotely resembled its trademark, this ruling can open up the domaining industry to trademark abuse.

I believe that this was a blind-fold resolution to this dispute and Google should have won. Groovle is neither a common word (dictionary word) or a word that can be associated with the business of Groovle – giving users the ability to design their own custom search engines.

Furthermore, Groovle’s business is too similar to what Google does – search engine! People, we can clearly see an attempt by a company to manipulate the internet users through confusion of the domain name, and chip away the success of Google for its own benefit.

The domaining world need not be surprised if we see a sudden, sharp rise in domain name trademark infringements. This ruling has given the perpetrators encouragement to commit breaches of domain trademark rights and to some degree, get away with it.

Protecting our domain names just got a little more difficult!

View Nick Rodriquez's Profile      Subscribe via RSS